George Wildman Ball

Ball, George Wildman, 1909–94, American lawyer and diplomat, b. Des Moines, Iowa. Admitted to the bar in 1934, he served (1942–44) as counsel in the Lend Lease Administration and the Foreign Economic Administration. An expert on economic foreign policy, Ball became (1961) Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs and then served (1961–66) as Undersecretary of State. During that period he played a major role in formulating U.S. foreign aid and foreign trade policy and was the chief architect of the Trade Agreements Act of 1962. A persistent critic of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, Ball left the State Department to become (1966–68) chairman of Lehman Brothers, a major investment banking firm. After briefly serving (1968) as U.S. representative to the United Nations, he returned to Lehman Brothers as a senior partner. Ball is the author of The Discipline of Power (1968).